


Even After All

by eightninetwo



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Domestic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-21 01:30:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6033159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eightninetwo/pseuds/eightninetwo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Living with Kim Sunggyu is a chore. Literally. Howon may or may not regret his life and his choices. Aka <i>Five Times Howon Pretended Not To Be Related To Sunggyu and One Time He Finally Acknowledged Him</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even After All

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Cursing. A lot of cursing. Sexual references. Also homophobic/derogatory terms. Rated M mostly for language and themes.
> 
> Originally written for Infinite Secret Valentine's 2016 ([x](http://ifntvalentine.livejournal.com/2818.html))

Sometimes, Howon thinks, just sometimes, his life would have been a lot easier if he hadn’t run into one Kim Sunggyu twelve years ago.

**Case Scenario #10.4398534:** His fucking lawn would not look like it had been run over by a stampeding herd of whatever it is that stampedes, and been thrown up on by approximately fourteen drunk assholes.

And there would not be a weird, half-naked man sprawled on his couch and asleep with a half-eaten slice of pizza in his mouth right now.

Such is the life of Lee Howon, husband of Kim Sunggyu—a genius but also the biggest lazy ass in the world.

In all honesty, Howon does not regret saying yes when Sunggyu popped the question three years ago. They were still living in Seoul back then. In a high-rise apartment building. A loft in Apgujeong, to be precise. It had been Sunggyu’s pride and joy, all those excruciating extra hours he put in at work once he had graduated from university. He had risen through the ranks fairly quickly once he progressed from being the coffee boy.

But Howon had met him when he was just a third-year university student with a devil-may-care attitude, and Howon was still a fresh-faced first-year trying to find his direction in life. They had literally run into each other when both of them had been rushing for their classes—Sunggyu because he had overslept and missing that class meant he would exceed his quota for being late and get debarred, and Howon because he had been consulting with a lecturer after his previous class and lost track of time—and ended up on their asses in the middle of the concourse area.

Fast-forward twelve years later, here Howon is, married to this fucking dumbass whom, Howon is sure, lives to make Howon’s life difficult. (Unless we’re talking about Howon’s sex life, then, in that case, Sunggyu is a blessing from the heavens.)

“Kim Sunggyu.” Howon says, his arms crossed and fingers tapping impatiently.

Said half-naked man on the couch barely even stirs in his sleep, though the half-eaten slice of pizza somehow falls out of his mouth and onto the floor with an almost inaudible splat.

“Kim. Sung. Gyu.” Howon repeats in a louder voice, enunciating every syllable perfectly.

Sunggyu’s still dead on the couch.

Howon normally lets it slide. He’d sigh in an exaggerated manner, and proceed to clean up whatever mess Sunggyu had made. But this time, this time it’s different. Sunggyu had gone and ruined his lawn.

The lawn Howon painstakingly maintains. The lawn Howon mows diligently every Sunday. The lawn that _Howon doesn’t even want to look at now_ because what the fuck, Kim Sunggyu.

Okay, Howon actually says that last part out loud. Like, really loud.

And Sunggyu falls out of the couch, only just missing having his face smothered by his pizza slice by inches. He has the atrocity to look all innocent for a moment when he sees Howon glaring at him. Fortunately, he also has the decency to pick himself up from the floor and run after Howon when he stalks away.

Kim Sunggyu may be a genius, but he’s still an embarrassment. And Howon sometimes avoids the secondhand embarrassment by just pretending he doesn’t know Sunggyu at all. Or that Sunggyu is just a random person he happened to meet just twenty minutes ago. Sometimes. But he doesn’t always get to use this excuse, since all his friends already know about Sunggyu.

Moving to California changes things a bit.

For starters, no one needs to know they’re actually married.

In fact, when Howon introduced himself to the neighbours—when Sunggyu wasn’t there—he said Sunggyu was a family friend who happened to be looking for an apartment here. Short and sweet, and definitely not too big a deception that would make it hard to keep up with. It is easier to deal with when Sunggyu is drunk on the sidewalk and Howon has to pick him up and drag him back to the house—“Haha, yeah, my family must have been playing a joke on me when they told _him_ I needed a housemate.”

Sunggyu only realized what was happening one day when Howon was taking out the trash and Sunggyu happened to be in the kitchen and Howon’s laughter was unmistakable. So he heard everything the neighbour had said.

 

 

And hence, this was, the first in the series of:

** Five Times Howon Pretended Not To Be Related To Sunggyu **

 

 

**#1**

The whole incident went a little like this:

Sunggyu had just woken up, and it was only because he heard the motor of the lawn mower running. That could only mean two things: that it was almost noon, and that it was Sunday. Howon only did the lawn on Sundays. He’s that kind of person. Anyway, Sunggyu was thankful Howon didn’t start early that day. Sunggyu had a long day at work—the day before—and all he had wanted to do when he got home was sleep for two weeks or so.

Of course, he couldn’t really sleep for two weeks. He had work.

So Sunggyu reluctantly climbed out of bed, because what the hell, no one can sleep with that noise. That says a lot because Sunggyu is a really deep sleeper, but for some reason, Howon’s lawn mower manages to ruin his game.

At least there was already breakfast in the kitchen.

The real shitty thing, though, Sunggyu found, wasn’t the lawn mower. Because at some point when Sunggyu was eating his breakfast, Howon had stopped the lawn mower. It was weird since Sunggyu was pretty sure it usually took longer, but he wasn’t going to drag himself out there mid-breakfast to investigate. It was what happened next that made him get his butt off the chair.

Howon laughing. But it wasn’t the kind of genuine laugh when he finds something hilarious. It was the kind of really fake, really forced ones. Fortunately, Howon has perfected it and it was hard to tell the difference unless it were one of his close friends.

So Sunggyu finished the rest of his pancakes—man, those were heavenly but alas, all good things must come to an end—and stalked outside to eavesdrop.

Sunggyu opened the front door as quietly as he could, then stood by the door there. He couldn’t hear very clearly but it was the best spot he could get without being noticed by either Howon or the person he was speaking with.

It honestly shouldn’t have come as a surprise to him. Of course, after so many years of relationship, Sunggyu should’ve already known. He has always been the brunt of Howon’s jokes. He didn’t think marriage would change things; he wasn’t naive.

But what he had heard still made his heart drop a little.

“Wow, sucks to be you.”

“Haha, yeah, my family must have been playing a joke on me when they told _him_ I needed a housemate.”

“You should just find a reason to get rid of him.”

“I’ve been thinking about that a lot, honestly. It would be rather mean, though.”

_Mean_? Sunggyu pursed his lips as he opened the door as silently as he could and slunk back into the house, not wanting to hear anymore. Mean was the understatement of the year. Granted Sunggyu was more than used to Howon’s scathing words, but actually hearing his now husband say these things was still a punch in the face.

But Sunggyu let it slide.

For that time.

 

 

**#2**

Sunggyu didn’t really have an alternative. He honestly didn’t. He had given it a lot of thought, but it had all come to nought so this was his only option left.

It wasn’t his fault he accidentally knocked Howon’s mobile phone into the toilet that morning when he was just trying to get to his toothbrush. It wasn’t his fault Howon forgot to bring his phone with him after he left the bathroom. It wasn’t his fault either that he didn’t notice Howon’s phone because what the hell, who would pay that much attention to the surroundings in a place that is as familiar to them as the back of their hands.

Also, Sunggyu is never awake enough to notice anything that early in the morning.

So Sunggyu drove his ridiculously flashy BMW X3—a very sporty hatchback in white, with a moonroof to boot—to Howon’s workplace.

Howon’s workplace, however, happens to be a school. And Sunggyu’s BMW might just be a tad out of place, with all the secondhand, battered cars that the university students drive. It really shouldn’t have come to him as a surprise when people start pointing at the car, with him still inside, of course. Besides, because Sunggyu didn’t know what time Howon’s last class was that day, he went early.

Like, really early. Sometimes you just have to do things extra carefully because when you’ve already made a mistake as big as causing Howon’s phone to end up in the toilet bowl, you just have to go out of your way to put things right.

When Sunggyu spotted Howon walking out of the building, he did the worst thing ever that one could do when one had already attracted that much attention. He honked. Twice.

Howon looked in his direction for all of two seconds, then disappeared onto a side path. The trees that line the path were blocking Sunggyu’s view and Sunggyu frowned, perplexed.

“What the fuck— Damn it, Lee Howon.”

Sunggyu hopped out of the car, locking it with a swift flick of his hand with the remote in it, and made his way towards where he last saw Howon. He assumed the nosy students that were now eyeing him were probably wondering which lucky girl’s rich boyfriend he was. Too bad, he wished he could be some lucky girl’s rich boyfriend too, so maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t be here right now trying to look for his stubborn husband.

He managed to find Howon sitting on a bench on that mostly abandoned path, since it was covered in dead leaves. Somehow he just knew Howon was only there to hide from everyone else, and not because he enjoyed sitting on a bench to ruminate on his life. And also so he did not have to acknowledge Sunggyu.

“Yah, Lee Howon.”

“Why are you here?”

“To pick you up, isn’t that obvious?”

“But why are you here to pick me up?”

“Why do I need a reason to pick my husband up from work?”

“Because your husband also drives, you dumbass!”

Sunggyu narrowed his eyes. “Fine, then do you want to come with me or not?”

Howon looked up at Sunggyu, and Sunggyu could see the conflict in Howon’s eyes. He obviously wanted to go with Sunggyu, but at the same time he didn’t because half the school was going to know about Sunggyu. Sunggyu knew that. Howon wasn’t very fond of broadcasting his relationship. He wasn’t sure if it was just because Sunggyu was the same gender he was, or whatever reason it might be.

But Sunggyu hoped that was the reason, because it would be a lot easier to handle.

“What about my car?” Howon said after much consideration, his tone resigned.

“I’ll drive you here tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Sunggyu grinned.

Even though Howon made him go back to the car first, then Howon tried to sneak to the car and failed spectacularly, because the students whistled at him.

“Is that your boyfriend, Mr Lee?”

“Very funny, Jack.”

Sunggyu refrained from rolling his eyes when said Mr Lee regarded the student in clear amusement before heading to the car in hasty strides.

When the door closed, Sunggyu repeated in Howon’s voice, “Very funny, Jack,” as he drove out of the carpark. Some of the remaining students waved to Howon and there were cat-calls from some of them which made Sunggyu a bit smug, but Howon was visibly displeased.

“Shut up.”

At least it wasn’t untrue that Sunggyu wasn’t Howon’s boyfriend.

So Sunggyu wasn’t going to harp on that either.

 

 

**#3**

Sunggyu was pretty sure his neighbours all thought he was a fool, what with everything Howon seemed to be saying about him.

And Sunggyu had pretty much been taking everything in his stride. They just moved to a new place after having lived in South Korea for their whole lives. It had to be hard on Howon, perhaps especially hard for him, so perhaps his way of dealing with it was like this.

Sunggyu tried not to blame Howon. They did have to deal with keeping their relationship a secret except with their closest friends and family for so long, and they didn’t really know how liberal their neighbours were now, it might be a better idea to not draw too much attention to their marriage status.

But it was getting ridiculous.

Sunggyu was merely lounging topless on a deck chair.

That was all he was doing.

On a Sunday, for the love of all things cute and furry. Like the litter of corgi puppies one of their neighbours just had and were looking for people to adopt them. Howon wanted to take one of them but Sunggyu rejected him about twenty times until Howon eventually gave up.

So somehow, even him relaxing on a chair managed to incur the wrath of one Lee Howon.

Sunggyu tried to merge with the chair. Quite frankly, he was doing a pretty good job, flattening himself completely on the chair and not moving at all as he hid behind his book.

“Kim Sunggyu!”

Nope, Sunggyu wasn’t going to budge. Nope, he was not Sunggyu anymore. He was the chair, yes.

But he was being the chair so well that suddenly Howon just stopped calling for him and left him alone. Sunggyu was about to continue reading his book in peace and relief when he heard Howon’s voice from near the garage door. Fuck, that could only mean one thing. Howon was talking to the neighbour again. Presumably, about him.

He was too far away to make out the words this time, but he definitely heard a line that he knew Howon had deliberately said very loudly for him.

“Yeah, that good-for-nothing bum doesn’t even help out around the house, I don’t know why I haven’t kicked him out yet.”

Yeah, because that good-for-nothing bum was actually the one who bought the fucking house. Well, at least he was the one who paid for most of it.

Sunggyu kept a straight face when Howon eventually finished his conversation with that fucking neighbour whom he already really, really detested even though he had never once spoken with them before. He had curtly nodded to them before just once when they were heading out the same time he was and the judgmental looking woman eyed him suspiciously. He didn’t even know why Howon always talked to her and her equally judgmental looking husband.

“There’s a shit tonne of stuff to iron.” Howon said without any emotion, and stalked back to the house.

It took all of Sunggyu’s self-control to not throw his book down and storm after Howon and yell.

Which person treats their husband like a piece of shit yet is all sweet and chummy with fucking nosy asshole neighbours? Sunggyu’s patience was really beginning to run thin.

He still went inside and did the ironing, though.

 

 

**#4**

“It’s nice here.”

Sunggyu nodded, looking around like Howon was. They were in a small cafe, tucked away in the corner of a busy street, mostly overlooked by people who were just making a beeline for the main shopping area up ahead. The pastel colours were soothing, and Sunggyu felt at ease here.

“I made a wrong turn the other day and saw this. Thought it’d be nice for a date.”

“Aww, so sweet.”

“You know I can tell when you’re being sarcastic.”

“I know,” Howon shrugged. “But it still is sweet that you brought me here.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m serious, hyung, look at me.”

Sunggyu looked away from the cupcakes on display and fixed his gaze on Howon.

Howon subtly grabbed Sunggyu’s hand under the table and laced their fingers together, looking at Sunggyu with a genuinely sincere expression.

“I honestly thought we were past cute dates and stuff, but I’m happy to be here with you.”

“Okay, now you’re being gross.” Sunggyu grinned and pulled his hand away from Howon’s, pushing the menu towards him.

“You’re being shy.” Howon laughed, clearly amused.

Sunggyu narrowed his eyes and glared at his husband for a few moments before huffing and directing his attention to the menu. He couldn’t help it when Howon sometimes did or said nice stuff. Even after all these years, Howon could still just do one thing and turn Sunggyu into a stuttering, blushing little boy who is very obviously and very much in love. Of course, Sunggyu had the same effect on Howon too, and perhaps that was how they managed to stay together till now.

And Sunggyu also loved that laugh. Howon’s real laugh. Sometimes he wondered if that was the reason he had fallen in love right from the beginning.

Unfortunately, when Sunggyu thought his life would be much easier after moving to California because he wouldn’t have to hide his relationship with Howon as hard as he had to back in Seoul, he obviously thought wrong.

The waitress made her way to their table.

“Hello gentlemen, may I take your order?”

“Oh, yeah, sure, give us a second,” Sunggyu said, still studying the menu very seriously.

“Perhaps you would like to have the Valentine’s Couple Set?”

Howon reacted faster than Sunggyu could even look away from the menu. “Oh, no, no, no,” Howon said with a very fake and dry chuckle, waving his hands in a vague _no_ gesture. “We’re just friends. That’d be awkward.”

Sunggyu offered an extremely forced smile through gritted teeth and nodded. It was all he could do to not stand up and walk away right at that moment.

Fine, he could accept Howon’s ridiculous behaviour towards their neighbours because what the hell, he didn’t like them either, it’d be much easier to pretend they weren’t related as long as it kept them out of their neighbours’ judgmental and prying eyes.

But this? This was getting ridiculous. Nobody was even judging them. Nobody was even mocking them. Yet Howon went and did that.

Sunggyu didn’t want to say a word because he didn’t want to ruin this.

So that was that.

 

 

**#4.5 **BONUS****

On the topic of food, while this had no connection to their not-exactly-successful Valentine’s Date—or at least to Sunggyu it wasn’t successful, considering his date denied being his date—Sunggyu tried to cook for Howon one day.

And because Sunggyu was _such a great cook_ , Howon attempted to help him with it because the fucking ramyun looked like shit unsafe for human consumption. How anyone could even _screw up instant ramyun_ was honestly beyond anyone’s comprehension but seeing as it did happen—

Well, let’s just say both Sunggyu and Howon were fantastic cooks and ought to get three Michelin stars at the very least. Three stars for con-fucking-gratulations on living for thirty years and not knowing how to cook instant ramyun.

Their ramyun ended up tasting like ~~pain~~ plain, boiled water, and one part of their kitchen wall ended up charred. They had to keep the kitchen windows open the entire day because at first there was just a lot of smoke barreling out, then they needed to fan the smell out.

Howon obviously pointed fingers at Sunggyu for everything and took none of the blame himself.

 

 

**#5**

When Sunggyu first got into a relationship with Howon, he had to admit that he did not think Howon would be _the loud type_. Nor did he think Howon would be _the eager type_. But then again, they got into a relationship pretty quick, and it was mostly just based on lust at first. So Sunggyu probably couldn’t say he actually already knew Howon very well to make assumptions on what he’d be like—in bed.

So he also couldn’t say that he expected Howon, who had such a macho and manly image going on, was a little kitten in bed. While Sunggyu was the dominant type through and through, and it was definitely obvious even to Howon before they got together, he still thought they’d have a constant fight for dominance. Then their first time happened and Sunggyu gave up on that fantasy immediately.

So on that night, which was the night of their wedding anniversary—the very first year—they might have gotten a bit too carried away. And Howon might have just gotten a tad too loud.

See, that normally wouldn’t be a bad thing. Sunggyu enjoyed hearing the sounds Howon made. But because they went from having car sex in the garage, which wasn’t sound-proof, to the kitchen, which was unfortunately too close to their neighbour’s kitchen window, then to the living room, which echoed because it was so spacious, and finally to their bedroom, which masked most of the sounds since they dove under the covers, it also meant that Howon was moaning and crying out Sunggyu’s name from one end of the house to another. Not that Sunggyu himself wasn’t, but Howon’s was… louder, way louder.

“Fuck,” Sunggyu breathed. “I need to… build up my stamina.”

Howon laughed and draped his body half onto Sunggyu, still panting softly and trying to catch his breath, his chest heaving against Sunggyu’s. He trailed his fingers down the side of Sunggyu’s cheek, then kissed his chin gently before resting his head next to Sunggyu’s.

“You can still keep up with me so it’s not that bad.”

“Yes, Mr Lee. I believe it was one of the prerequisites for being your husband.”

“Wow, hey, speak for yourself. Who was the one who couldn’t keep their hands off me when we first started dating?”

“Oh, yeah. Remind me again who was all ‘I want you in me, hyung’ the first time we _made out_?” Sunggyu grinned, doing a perfect imitation of Howon’s tone.

“Fuck you, I thought we promised never to talk about that again.”

“But you know that’s the best leverage I have over you, kitty.” Sunggyu smirked.

Then Howon reached downwards and squeezed Sunggyu’s butt, effectively shutting him up. “You know I have a lot of leverage over you too, puppy.”

Sunggyu pursed his lips. “If you’re game for round five, you just need to say so.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s the reason we took two days off from work each to celebrate our first year anniversary of being husbands.” Howon wiggled his brows.

Sunggyu couldn’t deny that.

Except the doorbell rang at that very opportune moment.

“Oh, what the fuck,” Sunggyu grumbled, then called out much louder, “Fuck off, people are busy having sex here!”

Howon clamped his hand over Sunggyu’s mouth, though it wasn’t fast enough. Sunggyu licked his palm. Howon grimaced at Sunggyu and pulled his hand back, wiping it on Sunggyu’s chest.

“It’s two in the fucking morning, who is even awake—”

“Maybe one of our neighbours are in trouble or something. I’ll go take a look, you stay here.” Howon slid off the bed, much to Sunggyu’s regret, and pulled on a pair of track pants. He didn’t bother with a shirt.

But five minutes passed and Howon wasn’t back yet. Sunggyu was starting to worry. He hopped off the bed and grabbed the nearest pair of boxers to put on, then headed towards the door to get Howon.

“Kitty?” He called as he ran his fingers through his unkempt hair, “Kitty, what’s going on?”

The next thing he heard was Howon shutting the door.

Then Howon was walking back to him, looking extremely sheepish and maybe a tad guilty.

Sunggyu assumed the neighbour probably came to complain about the… noises, which Howon probably made up a fake story about.

“Nothing, let’s go back to bed.” Howon said, reaching for Sunggyu’s hand and pulling him back to their room.

Sunggyu went straight to sleep.

 

 

So those were the Five (and a Half) Major Events from _Five Times Howon Pretended Not To Be Related To Sunggyu_.

 

 

And this is the one time Howon fixes things, also known as:

** The One Time Howon Finally Acknowledged Him **

 

 

It is late and Howon’s starting to get worried. He knows Sunggyu is mad over what had happened last night. He also knows that he really needs to stop denying he’s in a relationship with Sunggyu.

When Sunggyu ignored him and went straight to sleep, Howon knew he screwed up. Real bad. Sunggyu never said no to sex. Never. Not once in the past twelve years they’ve known each other. In contrary, he is usually the one who rejects Sunggyu. Mostly because of really dumb reasons too.

And Howon rejects Sunggyu for a lot of things. It’s a wonder he didn’t reject Sunggyu when Sunggyu asked him out. Or when Sunggyu proposed to him.

In hindsight, Howon supposes anyone in their right mind can only take rejection for an answer so many times before they give up. Sunggyu never once gave up on him. Not when he reached a low period in his life when he didn’t know what to do with his life and at that time, Sunggyu was already a high-flyer. Not when he tried to leave Sunggyu—three times, once when he thought Sunggyu was cheating on him, once when he thought Sunggyu was getting bored of him, once when he thought Sunggyu didn’t deserve him.

Sunggyu is stubborn that way.

Howon didn’t actually think they could last this long, let alone get married. He’s pretty sure everything only happened because of Sunggyu’s confidence, and Sunggyu’s belief in the two of them.

Yet he’s already noticed Sunggyu looking more resigned these days, which is even worse than when they were back in Seoul. That actually says a lot.

But Howon, being Howon, he’s not the type to put himself down, not even when he’s in the wrong.

Except now that it looks like Sunggyu’s really affected by everything, and the fact that he’s still not home yet when it’s past midnight—he usually tells Howon if he’s going drinking with his friends or has to stay late to finish his work—Howon’s fucking anxious.

He’s called Sunggyu’s mobile at least five times in the past hour. He knows it makes him sound like some overreacting partner, but Sunggyu has never done this before. Even when they were fighting in the past, Sunggyu never did this.

Then a crash from outside draws Howon’s attention. He hears some yelling, and Howon almost trips in his haste to find out what is happening.

Sunggyu is yelling at some dude animatedly, and the dude is bellowing back as animatedly. It is a huge dude though, taller and much bulkier than Sunggyu, and Howon recognizes him as one of the other neighbours a few houses down the street.

Howon can also see that Sunggyu is very obviously drunk. And Howon can honestly say that he’s only seen Sunggyu that drunk about six times in his life, this being the seventh time, because Sunggyu is that good a drinker—the best Howon’s ever seen. He instantly feels two hundred times worse than he already feels about everything he’s done to Sunggyu lately.

The dude lunges at Sunggyu, which Sunggyu very fortunately dodges because he loses his footing for a moment and moves back a couple of steps.

And now Howon is getting angry. His strides grow longer, faster, until Sunggyu and the dude—also a small crowd gathering—are within earshot. He doesn’t know why the fuck people would just stand around and watch a fight break out yet not do anything to stop it. At least that isn’t much different from back in Seoul.

“I fucking saw you touching my wife, you fucking fag.”

“I lost my balance, in case you can’t tell from how I can’t even stand properly right now, asshole.”

Howon tries not to roll his eyes. Although, in Sunggyu’s defence, he is doing pretty well even with how drunk he is.

“Anyway, if I’m a fag, why the fuck would I even touch your wife? I really doubt she has a d—”

The dude throws another punch, and manages to catch Sunggyu’s lip.

Sunggyu wipes the trickle of blood from the corner of his lips and sneers. Then he raises his fist to punch the dude in return.

Howon grabs his arm and pulls him back.

“Puppy— Hyung, let’s go back,” Howon whispers against his ear as he wraps his arms around Sunggyu from the back and tries to bring him away.

“Yeah? Scared now? You should be, you little fucker. Tell your boyfriend the big man made you cry—”

Sunggyu struggles, wanting to get out of Howon’s grip.

But Howon releases him anyway. He marches right up to the dude, and stares him square in the eye.

“Fuck you, he’s my husband.”

Then the punch Howon lands on the dude’s face is enough to draw blood. It is also enough for the dude to back away. No one expects the small Asian guy to be capable of that, clearly. Of course, it isn’t that Howon is really small, but his stature is rather tiny compared to the American dude, and on top of that, he’s a little shorter than Sunggyu too. He may have stopped practising Taekwondo right after getting his third-degree black belt, but Howon definitely hasn’t forgotten the moves.

“Fuck off from my sidewalk.” Howon hisses, then pulls a shell-shocked Sunggyu back into their house.

The dude looks equally shocked.

Howon doesn’t bother looking back. He can hear the neighbours whispering. Yeah, they can go ahead and talk behind Howon’s back all they want. Howon’s done with the denial, and he’s done with pretending Sunggyu isn’t the most important man in his entire life. If he’s going to have to live with them calling him derogatory stuff because Howon’s pretty sure some of them are allergic to homosexuals—really, Howon can see it in their eyes—then so be it.

“You just—” Sunggyu looks up at him with widened eyes as he sits on the couch. Howon had made him sit there while he went and got a towel to wipe the blood from Sunggyu’s face.

“I did.”

“Wow.” Sunggyu whispers.

“I shouldn’t have to be afraid to admit you’re my husband, even though you can do really dumb shit sometimes.”

“Wow,” Sunggyu breathes.

“Will you stop that?”

Sunggyu keeps quiet.

“I love you, hyung, you know that.”

“I do, yeah.”

“Don’t do this again? I was really worried.”

“Okay.”

Then Howon tosses the towel away, cups Sunggyu’s cheeks and draws him into a deep kiss.

Sunggyu touches his own face gingerly after Howon pulls away, and makes a face at him that clearly says ‘ _ow_ ’.

“Oops,” Howon says sheepishly, then shrugs and continues, “You taste and smell like shit anyway. Go take a shower and we can cuddle.”

Sunggyu grins and gets to his feet. He looks as if he’s about to walk away, then he stops and turns back to Howon, holding his hand out to him. “Join me?”

Howon smiles and grabs Sunggyu’s hand tightly.

 

 

Sometimes, Howon thinks, just sometimes, his life would have been a lot easier if he hadn’t run into one Kim Sunggyu twelve years ago. But Howon doesn’t need his life to be easier, he needs his life to have Kim Sunggyu. For better and for worse, till death do them part.

**Author's Note:**

> Last but not least, shoutout to K also aka jelly baby (!!) because what's domestic gyuya without you, really? ;u; love always & thank you for being a great inspiration!


End file.
